


The Dream Before Dying

by fencingfox



Series: This October Night [23]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, F/M, Fictober 2019, Inktober 2019, Kinktober 2019, Sensory Deprivation, Temporary Character Death, Wholesome, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2021-01-02 05:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21156278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencingfox/pseuds/fencingfox
Summary: B'Elanna has seen the Barge of the Dead. Now she's seen Sto-Vo-Kor, too.





	The Dream Before Dying

**Author's Note:**

> loQ por - little leaf (Klingon)  
rama - branch (Spanish)

* * *

**| "You can’t give more than yourself." | bleeding out | sensory deprivation | ancient |**

* * *

B'Elanna doesn't remember how she got back to her quarters or why she's sitting at a candlelit table with Tom. She doesn't care all that much either. He's smiling at her like she's the only thing in the universe. B'Elanna leans forward and rests her head on her hand, listening to his story. 

"And then Vorik," he draws back to laugh, "he'd been so _confused_. I could actually see it on his face." 

"No!" Her eyebrows lift up. 

"Yes!" Tom nods exuberantly. "Harry was snickering by that point, Chakotay was hiding a chuckle, but he of course couldn't laugh. Being the senior officer on the mission. I don't envy that." 

"What did you do?" 

"I did what I had to. I threw him out the airlock." _What?_ Tom stops to take a sip of his wine. He sets it down. He seems to be done. _Am I not going to have Vorik in engineering anymore?_ She hates to admit it, but losing him would be a loss. He's a decent engineer. Efficient. Logical. He might just blush at the comment. Then she suddenly realizes that what Tom's said makes him a murderer. Harry and Chakotay are accomplices. She whitens. _Is the food poisoned?_

"With a suit of course." Tom continues with a laugh. She breaths a sigh of relief. Why does she have death on her mind? Tom wouldn't kill Vorik...at least not with witnesses. She still wonders about that time on Sakari. Tom looked ready to tear him limb from limb right along with her. 

"You're horrible you know that?" He hums back in response. 

"But you love me anyway." 

"That's only because I'm horrible too," she says with a cryptic smile before taking a sip of her wine. "Why'd you have to throw him out of the airlock?" Tom's eyes twinkle. 

"I'd said we couldn't take the _Flyer_ to warp. Harry suggested they lose some weight. Chakotay volunteered. But I told him as the senior officer that he shouldn't. Harry needed to stay on board to monitor the locals. And I needed to pilot." 

"So that left Vorik?" B'Elanna shakes her head. "And he _bought_ that?" Maybe he's not so decent an engineer after all. 

"Not at first. Chakotay had to back me. Harry helped him into his suit but he was still wary about it on the inside of the force field." 

"And you threw him out the airlock." Dare she say it? She's impressed. "Did you go to warp?" She asks with a laugh. 

"Not safe to obviously. We puttered around on low impulse with him floating around outside. We had our laugh and then feigned having fixed something when we brought him back in. I still don't think he figured it out." 

"Wow. That's some story." She takes a bite of the ricotta Tom replicated. She closes her eyes to the flavor while humming. When she opens them again, she's in engineering at her desk. Tom's at the door. She crinkles her eyebrows together. How did she get here? Tom produces a few flowers from behind his back with a swish. 

"Roses for my rose." B'Elanna feels herself blush as he steps forward. He pulls the old flowers from the vase on her desk and replaces them with the new ones. He puts them on the replicator tray to be reabsorbed by the ship. They'd been ancient by flower standards: 2 weeks old. 

"Thank you Tom." She stands up to kiss him. Her left side hurts when she stands. She holds it as she rises to press her lips to Tom's. It dulls some. Tom's looking at her side when they break. 

"You alright?" 

"Just a little stitch. It'll go away on it's own soon." She pulls her hand back to assuage his fears, but only heightens her own. She's bleeding. It's a small trickle that's starting to stain her jacket. 

"Okay, so long as it goes away soon." _Did he not see the blood?_ When she blinks, it's gone. The pain leaves too. 

"Actually, I think I should go to Sickbay," she says while still staring at her side. She pats it a few times, looking for blood, but sees none. 

"Want an escort?" He sounds concerned. She nods. 

"Sure." When she looks up at him, she sees the Doctor instead. She closes her eyes and shakes her head. _What is going on?_

"How long have you been having these pains?" The Doctor asks while running a tricorder over her abdomen. She looks around for Tom and feels his hand on her back immediately. It calms her. 

"Um, not long. Since...." _What day is it?_ "Since yesterday, I think." The Doctor looks up at her incredulously. 

"You think?" 

"Well my memory has been jumping around too." He doesn't look surprised. 

"Your iron and water contents are low. Dehydration can alter memory and cause body pains." The Doctor houses the scanner and sets the tricorder on the table to her right. "Drink plenty of fluids and call me if the symptoms worsen." He raises his head to the room. "Computer, deactivate EMH until tomorrow eight hundred hours." His figure shimmers out of existence. Tom walks around the end of the bed without taking his hand from her body. She looks up at him. 

"Good thing you came in. Dehydration is serious business." He rubs her upper biceps, squeezes them too. She can't feel them, but she can see them. She can't feel the bed under her either. She wiggles her toes, but she doesn't know if they're moving without looking down. _Does this count as worse?_

"Computer, activate the—." Before she can finish, she sees the Klingon over Tom's shoulder. Her eyes widen. He's coming at them with a bat'leth, swinging it down toward Tom with a yell. Tom doesn't notice him until the bat'leth pierces his back. He gasps in surprise as the air from his lungs escape. He slumps to the floor. B'Elanna watches with muted shock. The Klingon hoists her from the bed and she sees the posts marking Sto-Vo-Kor before her. The Klingon is nowhere in sight. 

_Then I'm dead._ The posts puzzle her. The last time she'd been dead, she'd taken her dishonor from her mother. She should be on the Barge of the Dead. Right about now, someone should be searing the mark into her cheek. Tears sting her eyes before she can stop them. They're happy and sad. Happy that she's finally an honorable Klingon and sad that she won't ever see Tom again. Humans don't go to Sto-Vo-Kor. There's a figure between two slightly taller posts—chest-high instead of waist-high. She steps forward and beckons to B'Elanna. As B'Elanna gets closer she sees her mother. _So she'd made it after all._ Her eyes sting more. Her mother may be dead, but at least she's here in Sto-Vo-Kor. 

"Mother." Her voice carries a lot of emotion: gratitude, joy, sadness. 

"Lanna." Her mother moves forward and smiles softly. "What brings tears to your eyes, loQ por?" 

"I'm happy and sad to be here," she admits as her mother draws her into a hug. It feels nice. B'Elanna brings her hands around her and buries her face in her mother's hair. It smells like it had when she was a little girl: faintly of trees and smoked meat. She breaths in. 

"You want to go back? You can’t give more than yourself." She's beyond grateful that her mother doesn't let go. It might have something to do with how tightly B'Elanna's holding her. 

"No, I fell in love." Her mother draws back and holds her biceps like Tom had. It makes her choke back a sob. "I'll never see him again." 

"Why loQ por?" Her voice is soothing, like the time she'd come home crying and covered in scrapes because some kids thought it'd be fun to shove her down a pebbly hill. Her lip quivers. She's a little scared of her mother's reaction. Since her father left, she'd never trusted humans again. 

"He's human." 

"Have you taken the Oath?" She nods. They'd done that just last month. She wasn't ready for a public wedding, but she wanted some claim on him. 

"Then you don't need to worry." The voice isn't her mother's, but her father's. B'Elanna looks up to see the open face of her father. She releases her mother. Her mother leans back and tilts her head up to his. He kisses her. It makes everyone smile. 

"You're late," her mother accuses playfully without looking away. Her father shrugs. 

"I wanted to surprise her. I'd been in Heaven when she'd taken the Oath with Tom." Her father smiles at her. "He's a good man. I'm proud of you." Her chest bubbles over with the recognition. "I thought she'd be happier to see me if I'd made an entrance," he steps back to bow, and then still bowed with his hands stretched behind him in a V, he looks up, "like I just had." B'Elanna laughs as he straightens. "It's good to see you, rama. What do you say to taking a look at Sto-Vo-Kor? Then I'll show you Heaven. Your mother can't come along." He looks down at her mother then. "No human in her," he looks back at her, "but you can visit and watch what's going on among the living." Her eyes are so watery, it's hard to see. She had no idea. Not only can Oathed mates come to Sto-Vo-Kor, but since she's half human, she can go to her father's Heaven. She probably has family there too. She wonders briefly if her Klingon half from the Vidiian mines is here in Sto-Vo-Kor. 

Her mother and father walk hand in hand between the tallest posts. B'Elanna hesitates. The red and black marbled posts that mark the edge of Sto-Vo-Kor are humming. They remind her of her warp core. Or rather, Carey's now. She'll have to check on engineering when she visits Heaven with her father. She steps forward but is stopped by a thin sheet. It's like a force field only without the shock of one. She pushes just her hand forward and is met by the same sheet. Reality stretches around her hand, forming delicate lines. She looks to her parents. They're frowning. 

"It's not your time, Lanna." 

"Then why am I still here?" Her mother shakes her head, and seems to force a smile. It occurs to her that Sto-Vo-Kor doesn't include myths about watching loved ones still living. Only her father can check on her. It must be hard for her mother. B'Elanna wonders how long she's been here. 

"What do you remember?" 

"I don't—." Just then, she gets a flash of the inside of a Jeffery's tube. "I was repairing something in a Jeffery's tube on _Voyager_." She frowns. _What happened?_

"Go on," her mother prompts. "It will bring you back." She doesn't ask what she wants to which is, what if it hurts. B'Elanna closes her eyes. She lets out a breath when her side starts to throb, feeling wet and sticky. Her eyes shoot open. 

"I'm bleeding." 

"It's alright, rama." He smiles at her frightened face. "We'll be here when you come back." B'Elanna looks at both of their faces again. It's been too long. She used to regret every decision she'd made that separated her from their love. Standing at the edge of Sto-Vo-Kor, she wouldn't have it any other way. 

"I love you." 

"We love you," he replies. Her mother nods. 

"Come back to us when you are ready," her mother adds. B'Elanna closes her eyes and focuses on finding the throbbing. It finds her. She draws a sharp breath. Her lungs and throat ache. She feels a little light-headed. Her fingers are numb. She can barely feel her shoulder pressing down on the grating. There's a piece of sheeting sticking out of her side. It looks to have fallen. In fact, the whole Jeffery's tube looks beat up. She remembers why she'd been here. She had to reroute power for shields manually since the last attack knocked out her ability to do so at a terminal. Seems they'd been attacked again. 

"Help." Her voice sounds small. With a shaky hand, she taps her commbadge. It chirps mercifully. "Torres to Sickbay. I'm hurt. I can't move. There's a panel in my side." She thinks she sounds rather calm. 

"It's alright, B'Elanna," the Doctor says over the link. "I'll send a team down to you. Transporters aren't working at the moment." B'Elanna nods and closes her eyes. "B'Elanna, B'Elanna, wake up." She must have drifted. "Stay with me. Say you hear me." 

"I hear you." She hears him sigh audibly. 

"The team will be there in a few minutes. Keep talking to me. Describe your injury." She twists a little to look down and winces when it forces the plate to slice a little further sideways towards her stomach. 

"There's a...three by seven panel in my left side. The panel is still attached to the wall. No wait, I think it's just stuck. I bet if I—" 

"Don't move it, B'Elanna," he warns. She almost wants to point out that she knows she doesn't die now. She'd just been sent back from Sto-Vo-Kor. A little more blood isn't going to hurt her. But it could be that the movement she'd need for freeing the panel is what kills her. No one ever said how soon to come back. 

"Okay, I won't." 

"Can you feel your extremities?" 

"I can't feel my toes. My fingers are numb. My shoulder is too." The hatch opens near her head. She looks up at Tom, who's hovering over her. 

"Come here often," he jokes. She smiles. 

"As a matter of fact, yes. Yes, I do." His eyes scan the wreckage beyond her. He taps his badge. 

"Doctor, it looks like B'Elanna's still attached to the ship. What do you want me to do?" 

"No, I'm not." B'Elanna murmurs. "It's just wedged under something. If you push me down and then twist me, I should come free." He eyes her warily with concern. She can't imagine what this is like for him. It occurs to her that he could kill her too. 

"Doctor?" 

"Go ahead Mr. Paris." Tom turns to call over his shoulder. B'Elanna watches his voice box bob. 

"Vorik! Shut down power to this section." 

"Understood, Sir," she hears faintly. The lights around her dim and then blacken. The only lighting comes from the warp core over Tom's shoulders. He looks back at her. 

"Ready?" She bites her lip but nods. "Okay. Hang tight." His hands come to her shoulders. 

"No pain hypo?" He hesitates. 

"I don't know how much blood you've lost. You could pass out if I give you the wrong dose." B'Elanna nods and bites her lip harder. "I'll be quick." Tom's grip tightens. He pushes her down the Jeffery's tube. She yells. The panel had been wedged at an angle and pushing her down released it from the jutting panel it'd been pushing on for support so the panel has shifted up in her side at a diagonal. Tom doesn't stop though. He slides her to the side of the tube and then twists her until she's flat on her back. The panel doesn't touch anything, but it throbs with new vigor. He dips to kiss her nose. She focuses again on his face and only his face when he draws back. "I'm going to pull you out now, okay?" 

"Okay." 

"The stretcher ready?" Tom asks without looking away. But he raises his voice to make it clear he's not talking to her. 

"It is," Ayala replies. 

"Come give me a hand." Tom shifts to B'Elanna's left where the panel is. Ayala takes her right. He looks up at Ayala. "Let's move her slowly." Ayala nods. He looks down at her. B'Elanna smiles but turns her face to Tom. If she might die, she wants to see his face before she goes. He's concentrating. The Jeffery's tube slides out of view. Her side throbs, but doesn't hurt more than that. She can handle this. Tom and Ayala are holding her by her shoulder blades and thighs. They side-step from the bulkhead and then lower her to the stretcher. Tom signals for Ayala to let go first so she doesn't roll onto her injured side. When Tom releases her he squeezes her wrist. "It's alright, 'Be." She smiles at him. She knows.


End file.
